Jimmy's 2012 Grow - 7/2/12 Update... The Hail Storm & more..

Well im kind of new around here, this isnt my first time growing hot peppers, but it is my first time growing them in containers.

I bought a dozen plants from cross country nursery, and they came in this past thursday.

I bought 2 Red savinas, 2 Mustard Habaneros, 2 Yellow Scotch Bonnets, and one Devils Tongue.

I also bought 2 Japanese Takanotsume's, 2 Kung pao Hybrids, and one Thai Red hot pepper ( not the small ornamental, these are larger)

I decided to go with the global buckets design to have these somewhat portable. I have lucked out and started my graphic design career finally after graduating a year ago, and will be hopefully moving closer ( less than 30 miles ) and will want to take these with me if possible. if not, no bigee. Another thing that appealed to me is that living in tornado alley is not fun this time of the year, and ive already spent too much into this project this year to see plants killed by bad weather.

I used what i could find locally and also afford in this build. using menards buckets as well as some 2 gallon containers from the grocery bakery ( for the thai and japanese peppers).

I have also picked up a 107L bag of Canadian Shagnum Peat moss, and 3 28L bags of Shultz Enriched Garden soil ( on sale so i couldn't resist ).

I used a 50/50 mixed of these two soils. The Shultz definitely had some manure in it, seemed like a pretty good black soil but by no means am I a connoisseur. I have been reading on this forum for the past several weeks and the extent people go into detail on the soils in this community is just way over my head. I had to try and pick something that I felt would work with what the community says is good and what the people who designed the global bucket say works with that system.


Anyways, The plants from CCN are absolutely amazing. They look to be 5-6 month old plants.
Heres to a summer with fingers crossed hoping I don't kill these great plants and reap some great harvests.

Here are a couple pictures of todays progress. The japanese and thai type peppers will be planted tomorrow.

 

[pshngo]

No perlite? lookin good

 

[SuperHot]

Nice!!

 

[Chewi]

Digging those buckets! Nice start man!

 

[JimmyNX]

Alright guys, here an update.

I got paid this week ( woohoo) and was able to pick up the remaining supplies for this years grow. After voicing some concerns with my peppers being transplanted and how they were reacting to the potting mix i made, I had went to buy some new supplies today in preperation to fix any problems after troubleshooting this afternoon.

I picked up these.

And here are the specs for the make up of the bags, for future discussion.

Lime ( Which now after soil testing I will probably not use, but may make Calcium Acetate as per recommended for a Cal Mag substitute later on )

And the Sulfur

NOW... on to a follow up on my previous thread asking for input on what my plants were doing in the first week.

Along with these items today I had also bought a Soil tester that has readings for PH, Wetness, and Fertility.
I dont see this as an end all go to reader type of thing, but It is nice to have a ballpark, and once I saw that it could help gauge how wet the soil is down below the plant with the global bucket system, I had to try it.

I got some interesting results considering the feedback I have gotten from my first posts regarding my soil mix and the mulch I use. Some people were throwing flags on how I should have an acidic nightmare.

I think the most important information I received from this tool would be that if there were any issues with the first week of these transplants, its that they have gotten too wet. I drained the bottoms ( reservoirs) of the global buckets, and sed aside some of the mulch to have areation from the top and bottom.

Here are the pics with the info from the reader on PH, Wetness, and Fertility.

This first image was done as per instructions to the teeth of the tester for PH checking, I used some leftover soil mix and used this as a "Base". I then tested one of the potted plants that has the mulch in as well and got this result.

So at least I am seeing some consistency.

Now, on to the "fertility" I took this reading with a grain of salt. but its entertaining. It measures Nitrogen, phosphorous and potash levels. The scale goes from too little, ideal range, and too much. figures for each range of reading go as such

Nitrogen: Too little- 50ppm -- Ideal Range-50-200ppm -- Too much- 200ppm
Phosphorous: Too little- 4ppm -- Ideal- 4-14ppm -- Too much- 14ppm
Potash: Too little- 50ppm -- Ideal-50-200pm -- Too much-200ppm

These are the readings I got across two different plants for an average/consistency reading.

NOW.... After all that I have looked at, and seeing that the wetness rating was on the 4 if not over ( on a scale of 1-4 ) from the reader, which I would thing would be the easiest to trust on this little reader, is that I can conclude this.

If anything, my transplants are just a little bit too wet. The mulch is helping keep it in just as it should, but the global buckets have just soaked up too much water. My immediate reaction was to dump the water out of all the buckets reservoirs, and move aside some of the mulch to provide some open areation to the soil.

Also, considering the fertile readings on the thing, and my original plans to give them a splash of some organic fish emulsion that I got today, I gave them jsut a super light splash of the fish emulsion. I mixed it as prescribed, but downsized it so i only used a 1/4 teaspoon per quart. I think i am just going to let these guys dry out and not water for a good while, and hope for the best.

I also could have had these planted a little too early, as we have just been struck by a little cold streak in southern illinois. The temps were down to the low 50s at night this week for several nights. It is supposed to pick up though. It has also been overcast the past couple days and in the mid 70s during the day.

Any help or input is appreciated.

I am hoping some of the yellow coloration some plants have had will be remedied by the fish poo. Oddly though, the only plants that are having these symptoms are the Habaneros, the Kung Pao hybrids, the japanese and Thai peppers are all looking okay with maybe one lower leaf not looking happy, but they are already getting fierce in wanting to sprout buds.

 

[armac]

Do not get too technical. I own no ph meter, no special pepper growing stuff, just typical gardening items. I have ripe superhot already. Plats have been growing for years without all the technical gear.

 

[JimmyNX]

Agreed. I told myself nothing more after yesterday. I got the lime because people had worried me about peat moss. And the sulfur because I know that is one of the unanimous things that helps with a great harvest. Whatever I dont use can be used around the house, so it was a win win. The meter was just for shits and giggles for the most part. And the watering level. I wanted to know how it was working down deep in the 5 gal buckets without tearing it up.

 

[JimmyNX]

Well heres a new update. The plants are 1 month old in their new homes now. I will let the pictures do the talking. Overall, I am very happy and dying to be able to stop pinching buds and let some peppers grow.

The Group Shot

The Red Savinas ( go big or go home! )

The Devils Tongue ( Left ) And Mustard Hab ( Right )

Scotch Bonnet ( right ) and the Runt Mustard Hab ( Left )

The Takanatsume ( what I am impatiently waiting to cook with )

And the Thai Red ( NOT ORNAMENTAL, This is some different beast that I think I will regret. I give up on pinching buds, its winning the battle)

 

[PaulG]

Jimmy, your plants look great. They just needed a little time to adjust to
their new homes, and it looks like you are on the success trajectory!
The weather has a lot to do with it, but it looks like you are doing the right things.

 

[JimmyNX]

Well its been an interesting week thus far.

After over a month of no rain and record setting heat ( broke the 1936-1938 records! ), I have some interesting news.

We finally got rain. A LOT. And also... 25 minutes total of hail, ranging from pea sized to ping pong ball size. When it first started it was around the size of a quarter.. and i rushed out immediately to bring my japanese and thai peppers into the patio. I could not get to the habaneros and kung paos. They fared well considering the damage taken place in the area, as they sat underneath the overhang of the roof. There was some damage though.. one of my kung paos branches ( with a pepper of course! ) got shot off. ha.

NOW.. on to a new concern. I have noticed I have my first Habanero pepper growing.. FINALLY. However.. I have a big let down. It is already rotting. I am thinking that I am having a calcium issue.. however I am spraying the plants with a mixture of water and epsom salt ( Aprox 1/4 tsp per 1 quart water, in a spray bottle, and i go through the entire bottle between the dozen plants).

Here are some illustrative pictures.

You can kind of see that some of the leaves are curling. However.. on my one Scotch Bonnet that is fairing well growth wise.. the plant is unusually droopy and the leaves are curling upward.

I am watering with a fish poo ( nitrogen ) fertilizer per the nurserys recommendation and bottle.. and i have not given them any nitrogen since they have gotten larger in about 2 weeks.. before that it had been 2 weeks before.. and then when they were still small they got nitrogen every week per the nurseries instructions.

I have also used jobes organic vegetable fertilzer when they were transplanted, as well as at over 2 months of being in the new pots ( instead of 6 weeks after transplant per the bags instructions, played it safe ).


I DO have a bag of Lime.. in wich it is 94% calcium carbonate .. i have not used this as I did not want to burn or kill the plants.. But should I? It does not state it has magnesium... however early on i did use a bit of sulfir which did contain smaller ammounts of calcium and magnesium.. so i thought I should be A OKAY from a calcium deficiency without buying CalMag online because I cannot find it local.

Or am I just over reacting to one bad apple?

On the bright side.. on just one of my japanese/thai peppers ( I have 3 ) ... I already have over 20 peppers

Please help.. I dont want a soil fubar on my part and not get any of my Habs this season.